NGOs
welcome groundbreaking judgment
Brussels/Rotterdam,
15 March 2018 - Today, a Rotterdam District Court sentenced, on the basis of
the EU Waste Shipment Regulation, shipping company Seatrade for the illegal
export of vessels sent for scrapping on the beaches of South Asia. The Seatrade
company has been heavily fined, and two of its executives have also been banned
from exercising the profession as director, commissioner, advisor or employee
of a shipping company for one year.
For
the first time, a European shipping company has been held criminally liable for
having sold vessels for scrap to substandard shipbreaking yards in India and
Bangladesh, where, as widely acknowledged and according to the Prosecutor,
“current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and
pollute the environment”. The Prosecutor’s request that the Seatrade executives
face prison was only waived in light of this being the first time such criminal
charges had been pressed.
This
groundbreaking judgement sets a European-wide precedent for holding ship owners
accountable for knowingly selling vessels, via shady cash-buyers, for dirty and
dangerous breaking in order to maximize profits.
“We
strongly welcome the judgement of the Rotterdam Court. The ruling sends a
clear-cut message that dirty and dangerous scrapping will no longer be
tolerated”, says Ingvild Jenssen, Founder and Director of the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform.
(©
Studio Fasching - 2017)
CONTACT
Ingvild
JENSSEN
NGO
Shipbreaking Platform
Executive
Director and Founder
Tel.:
+32 (0)2 6094 419
Source: NGO shipbreaking platform.
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